On Jan 17, 5:42*am, Andy wrote:
On Jan 16, 8:18*am, Andy wrote:

On Jan 15, 11:29*pm, Darryl Ramm wrote:

Don't agree with everything Barb pushes, but she did her homework.

I do not agree and felt strongly enough about it that I commented on
the article.

I incorrectly atributed the quoted comment to Darryl. *I snipped in
the wrong places and appologize for the error.

Andy

I've been running a transponder in my gliders for the last dozen years
and have not found lack of battery power to be a problem. I've been
flying long flights, usually between 6 and 10 hours in the air. The
issue most people have with installing a transponder is cost, how much
is your life worth?

The military pilot that say's that the transponder wouldn't help with
collision avoidance is living in the past. All airliners and most high
performance airplanes have tcas, even my piper cub has a zaon unit
that picks up nearby transponders. It works great and is very
comforting as my cub is so slow that being hit from behind is a very
real possibility. tcas does help as it gives the crew climb or descend
instructions helping them avoid the traffic.

A lot of us live and fly near large cities with not only heavy airline
traffic but a lot of corporate and private jets that are hard to see.
I believe that flying around a major airport without a transponder is
reckless. The next glider without a transponder that is hit by a jet
will likely kill some people (we've been very lucky so far) and do
major damage to our sport.

Jim